Our money was on the Nash, but it was not to be

Despite spending three days on the floor of 2015 Detroit Autorama, we never snapped a clear photo of the winner of the coveted Ridler Award — a 1965 Chevrolet Impala belonging to Don and Elma Voth from Abbottsford, B.C., and radically restyled by Chip Foose. Fortunately, Adam Bateman of Wizards Products saved our bacon with these clean shots of the Impala and the other Great 8 finalists.

Named “Imposter,” there’s more to the prize-winning Impala than meets the eye; not a square inch of sheetmetal made it to the show floor without being modified in some way. The car’s been chopped and shortened and just about everything from the windshield to the wheel wells has been moved and massaged. The whole package sits on a 2008 Corvette frame, and it’s powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter ‘Vette engine (hence the “Imposter” name).

Like the other Great 8 finalists in the running for the Ridler, the ’65 Impala was an exceptionally clean build. We hope the car spends the second half of its life stretching its legs out on the open road, not tucked away in a garage or carted about in a trailer.

Graham Kozak – Graham Kozak drove a 1951 Packard 200 sedan in high school because he wanted something that would be easy to find in a parking lot. He thinks all the things they’re doing with fuel injection and seatbelts these days are pretty nifty too. See more by this author»